One of Lambda Literary Foundation’s most important initiatives is to support our up-and-coming writers. They represent the future of LGBT literature. We do this work through the Writers Retreat for Emerging LGBT Voices, which will be heldAugust 3-10 in Los Angeles. Founded in 2007, our Retreat has earned a first-rate reputation, and for good reason.

Emerging lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender writers need professional instruction and mentoring. They need a community of supportive peers who, like them, are committed to writing the LGBT experience in a publishing environment that doesn’t always feel welcoming of our stories. They need to learn the basics from perfecting their writing voice, to using social media to build their audience, to writing query letters to potential agents. They also need to understand trends in a publishing industry that is still in transformation. They need all of these tools-and more.

Many emerging writers who want to attend the Retreat simply can’t afford to come. By offering generous scholarships, Lambda Literary will make sure that all the very best aspiring lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender writers can attend.

We need your support to help bring these talented writers to Los Angeles. Please help us raise $25,000 to go directly toward the Retreat scholarship fund. Your tax-deductible contribution is critical to the program’s continuing success.

Lambda’s Writers Retreat is the only residency in the world specifically for promising LGBT writers. It is a unique experience that combines rigorous instruction from teachers who are also leading authors. The Retreat offers its participants a genuine fellowship of peer support. This year’s outstanding faculty includes Lucy Jane Bledsoe (Fiction), Randall Kenan (Nonfiction) Eduardo C. Corral (Poetry) and Elizabeth Sims (Genre Fiction with an emphasis on mysteries and thrillers).

The Retreat convenes LGBT writers from every walk of life and every region of the U.S.-as well as Canada, the U.K. and beyond-for one intensive, immersive week. Students arrive with manuscripts in hand, which may include a novel, a short story collection, a book of poetry or a memoir that will soon extend the fabric of our literature. At the residency they attend craft lectures, work on plot, develop more convincing characters and explore their own distinct voices. Teaching is personalized in small groups and one-on-one sessions. Besides this essential instruction, students forge connections to publishing industry professionals, and most importantly, build a community of peers on whom they’ll depend for years of encouragement, inspiration and friendship.

A gift to the scholarship fund will give a talented LGBT writer a real chance for professional growth and personal achievement. Our Lambda Fellows go on to achieve an impressive record of publication and community involvement. They win awards and other fellowships. They are both accomplished artists and ambassadors of LGBT literary arts.

Your generous donation to the Retreat Scholarship Fund will give these shining emerging writers an unparalleled opportunity in their careers, and empower them as agents of social change. You can make a direct, meaningful difference in the life of a writer by making a tax-deductible contribution to the Retreat Scholarship Fund today. Consider funding a full scholarship of $1,750 (tuition, room and board) to bring a talented emerging writer to Los Angeles this summer. Please give whatever you can afford – $50, $100, $500 – every dollar of which will go directly to help our community’s most promising writers!

Tony Valenzuela, Executive Director, Lambda Literary Foundation. A graduate of the MFA in Creative Writing program of the California Institute of the Arts, Valenzuela is a longtime community activist and writer whose work has focused on LGBT civil rights, sexual liberation and gay men’s health. Read his full bio here and contact him here.